Last week, I found out that my first baby and oldest daughter, Jessica, got into residency in general surgery and following much excitement, it made me think back to when she was born 27 years ago this May 18th. When I had Jess, I was already counseling postpartum moms and still decided not to follow my own good advice and got exhausted, emotionally depleted and mildly depressed. What a combo! I was one of the lucky moms though. After 3 months back at work part-time, my depression lifted and I felt myself again but I will never forget the challenge of those first few months.

Long story short, when my younger daughter Rachel was born almost 4 years later, I made my SELF-CARE A PRIORITY and had a great adjustment to new motherhood the second time. Again, I was fortunate and I’ve been a big believer in LIVING SELF-CARE ever since.

Now, it’s my pleasure to give back and raise funding for PSI Missouri and my friend who runs it, Linda Meyer, through “GIRLS NIGHT TO GIVE BACK.” PSI Missouri provides free phone and group support for any mom may be experiencing pregnancy or postpartum depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD and other emotional health conditions. I only wish they would have been around when I had my babies.

So, we’re looking for women who want to experience a fun, relaxing and tasty evening on Thursday, April 9 from 5:30-8:30 at Feed Your Vitality, a new cool healthy eating venue at 1821 Cherokee. Click here to go to the e-vite invitation. It promises to be a good time for a good cause and if you can’t join us that night, you can still make a donation to this life-saving group online.

To read more about PPD, click here for Carrie Edelstein’s most excellent article which just came out in St. Louis magazine. To read more about PSI Missouri, click here.

I’ve been talking a lot this past week about Stephen Sondheim’s most excellent Broadway musical which was made into a movie with Meryl Streep this last year and how meaningful it is. I have been surprised at how few people saw the movie when it was in the theater because of its description as “a musical about several fairytales”. While it is that, the story is about the journey of life and going “into the woods” or as Pema Chodron says “the places that scare us” and discovering what we need to know about ourselves and the world around us in order to journey through life with greater clarity and skill.

There are many valuable life lessons, and Sondheim’s score and lyrics tell beautifully. He reminds us that what we wish for my not turn out to be what we want, that the choices we make always have consequences, and that being nice is not the same as being good. I love this film and it’s it’s made such a big impression on me, that I wanted to share it with you

I talked about Mary Oliver’s poem “The Journey” several times this past week, so I wanted to provide an online version of it.

March brings renewal and a time to re-dedicate ourselves to taking as good care of ourselves as we do others. I hope you will be as inspired as I am by “The Journey” and the beautiful music and photography which accompany it. Click here to listen.

Two weeks ago in her weekly blog, my colleague and friend, Karen Kleiman, of the Postpartum Stress Center, thanked ten of us who had been involved in promoting awareness and education of postpartum depression. It felt wonderful to be recognized among such an esteemed group of women, many whom I’m happy to say are friends.

It also made me think about a book I’ve been reading, Crones Don’t Whine by Dr. Jean Shinoda Bolen, and the importance of having gratitude for the women who have come before us and cleared the way for us to follow. I remember 28 years ago when I became one of the psychologists associated with PPD (postpartum depression) and other postpartum conditions (anxiety, OCD, PTSD, PPP), there were two women whose tireless efforts led the field now called “perinatal mental health” to what’s it’s become: Jane Honikman and Nancy Berchtold.

Both were survivors of postpartum conditions and had the courage to speak out, each in their own way, about how we needed to pay attention to these conditions women were experiencing after childbirth for the mom’s and her family’s health. Long before others, these two pioneers dared speak the unspeakable, that motherhood is not always bliss, and that most women who experience PPD suffered in silence and tried not to let it show so as not to be judged a “bad mom.”

They helped many of us start a journey which continues to be an important part of our lives today. I know it has been in mine. Here’s to you Jane and Nancy for your passion, leadership and inspiration.

Last week we started a new class Living Self-Care: A Mindful Journey at the Midwest Mind Body Health Center in STL which Stacey and I hope to offer online next month. We talked about our five mindfulness foundation skills, practiced “Simply Breathe,” and discussed how we could take care of “Our Bodies” outside of class.

My students gently reminded me how challenging it is to practice self-care and mindfulness outside of class and how helpful it is to have a group in which we deliberately set aside time to practice and how much they’d missed this. Honestly, I missed it too. Although I make time usually for self-care or mindfulness, I was also more lax since our weekly meetings stopped.

Likewise, because I often teach “formal” skills/exercises in class, I realized I hadn’t said enough about how to practice “informally” throughout the day with the opportunities that naturally occur. For example, today when I was out for a walk, I stopped to look and listen to a passing train until the caboose went by. Or the other day, noticing the passing clouds in the sky instead of rehearsing my to-do list. Or, being in the shower, and paying attention to the smell of the soap, the sound of the water hitting my skin and the way it feels when I open the shower door to grab my towel.

This week, see if you can find a group of like-minded souls to spend some mindful time together or look for ways to add informal practice wherever and whatever you’re doing. For formal practice, check out the “Simply Breathe” video above.

2014 turned out to be an extra-ordinary year for me. It was not easy but as Stacey and I and others (much wiser) say, we often discover more about who we are through life’s challenges than when the road is easily traveled. Last weekend, I was reminded of this again when the characters from “Into the Woods” start out on a path which “is clear and the light is good” and in the course of the story, the path becomes barely recognizable to them.

I will be sharing more throughout the year about this past year’s transformative journey and my personal growth; however, I would encourage you to take time now to reflect on what you gained in 2014. The challenges you faced and what you learned from them. The triumphs, large and small, which continue to define you. Maybe, you were reminded like me that we live in a constantly changing universe, and our ability to “keep doing our inner work” is how consciousness evolves.

Here’s what Patanjali wrote almost two thousand years ago on the subject of inspiration. Click here to listen to Wayne Dyer discuss this passage in his lecture on the Wisdom of the Ages.

Let it be a guidepost to you in 2015 in your endeavors to fulfill your potential, whatever the task.

INSPIRATION

When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds.

Your mind transcends limitations, and your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world.

Dormant forces, faculties, and talents become alive and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.

My continuing challenge is to take breaks and to say “no” to some of the stories that come across my desk, even if I WANT to cover them! It’s been tough and I’m practicing self-care every day. It would be easy to work 12 -14 hours a day because I get “in the flow,” but that’s not the best for me.

As always, I am a work in progress. How about you? What steps would you like to take in 2015 to improve your level of self-care?